First group-buy closed

24

Comments

  • I would like 20 as well.

    Aaron Boyd

    P.O. Box 614
    5230 46 street
    Bon Accord, AB
    T0A 0K0
    Canada
  • Oh, this is still up? 20 for me, ask me in IRC for the shipping address.
  • Hi, I'd be happy to take 10 or 20.  I'll PM you an address if they're still available.

    Thanks!
  • @MrWizrd Is this moving forward?
  • edited February 2011
    @SovereignBleak It is as soon as I have the funds to pay for the magnets. $240 for the magnets plus international shipping for a dozen people is not a small amount for me. I am not accepting payment in advance so that I can give people exact amounts to pay. My rent and council tax plus a host of other payments left my account very recently and as of this moment I have £20 to my name and am wondering what I'm eating for dinner this week. I would ask everyone to remain patient (I know we're all itching to get things done), but rest assured that everything is prepared and as soon as I have ordered the shipment I will let everyone know.
  • Tommorow I will be visiting my bank to arrange an overdraft so that I can move forward with this faster. Sorry for the delays guys. I will be ordering the shipment as soon as the overdraft is arranged.
  • No rush, boss; don't put yourself in the red on our account.
  • edited February 2011
    I've ordered uncoated magnets from ebay (50 for £6!) but I'd definitely be interested in getting some coated ones and further protecting them with sugru.

    If you've still got any spare I'd like to grab 10 if I could, I'll PM you my address if you do have any.

    And be careful with overdrafts! Living in them sucks.

    EDIT: what strength are the magnets?
  • Hi again all,

    Just to give everyone a quick update and reassure you all that I've not vanished off the face of the earth, yes I am still here and yes I am still intending to deliver magnets.

    @odei I'm not sure as to the strength of the magnets but I expect you should be able to... drag paper clips around with them? I should have enough spare to send you ten, just contact me with your address and I'll add it to the roster.

    Just to let everyone know why I've been absent for a while - I've been sorting out a period of intercalation (suspension of studies) and a whole load of serious real life stuff. Sorry to keep everyone on the hook like this.

    For some reason I have not recieved some of the student funding I was entitled to, which I was intending to use to fund the purchase of our magnets. I am looking into these issues and waiting to hear back from my bank re an overdraft so I can sort things out asap. I feel pretty bad about these delays but I'm doing as much as I can to fix things :)

    Thanks all, I know you're all waiting on me...
  • No problem; thanks for the update.
  • Good news, everyone! Funding issues have been largely resolved and I will be ordering magnets very shortly.

    I've checked my list of names and I am missing the following information:

    @Monochrome - Address and number of magnets.
    @Ida - I need a shipping address for you.
    @johnasumter - You've specified you would like 10 or 20 magnets. Is this still the case? I also need an address from you.
    @odei - I need you to send me a shipping address

    I'll be in IRC now and again to see if I can catch some of you there. This is obviously not a pressing issue until I actually have the magnets in my possession, but having the info in advance would be nice.

    I have been advised that I will probably have to pay customs fees when the package crosses the border into the UK. If this happens I will provide documentation and spread the cost per magnet so that the cost is kept as low as possible for everyone. Customs fees for your individual packages I'm not sure about and am looking into.

    I'll let you all know once the order has been placed :D
  • @MrWizrd: Do you keep logs of your IRC conversations? I did query you before :)
  • @MrWizrd: I have resent you address and number of magnets
  • @MrWizrd Is it too late to get in on this?
  • @Ida: No, I don't. I have the file with everyone's information encrypted and securely synchronised between my computers, but I've been having some issues recently which meant I lost one or two of the most recent edits to the file.

    @Monochrome: Thanks :-) I've added it back in.

    @Oak: It's not too late until I run out of magnets to send I suppose. All you need to do is send me the number of magnets you want and a shipping address. You can contact me at mr [dot] wizrd [at] gmail [dot] com or via PM.

    TLDR: I suck at being organized. Thanks for putting up with me. It's the first time I've undertaken something like this. Unfortunately life has a tendency to get in the way sometimes.
  • edited March 2011
    I have now placed an order with V&P.

    As of this moment I have at most 30 magnets left for allocation.

    I need a firm quantity from @johnasumter, and shipping addresses from @johnasumter and @odei please.

    Thanks everyone. One step closer!

    Edit: Today is my 23rd birthday (this year anyway). Woo!
  • @MrWizrd:  Happy birthday!

    Actually, I'm not really all that enthusiastic about these kinds of holidays.  Do we really need some kind of excuse to celebrate?  That's something we should be doing everyday, because life is something that deserves to be constantly celebrated.  Most people are effectively reborn every day, which also kinda screws up the whole birthday thing.  Same thing with Christmas and other winter holidays; do we really need an excuse to share gifts with each other?

    P.S.  You have my shipping address, correct?
  • I'd argue that using specific dates as markers for celebrations is important due to its possible psychological importance. I'm unaware of a human culture that does not use recurring dates/events for ritual celebration (such as birthdays - and I do not mean to say that all rituals use recurring dates/events). I personally conclude from this that there is a basic psychological need in humans for recurring ritual. I should probably try to find some studies sometime so that I'm not just making crap up. And with that...

    @MrWizrd
    Happy birthday! What better way to celebrate than by purchasing magnets for implantation? Also, crazy-huge thank you for doing this.
  • edited March 2011
    I have provided payment information for the order and am awaiting shipment to my address.

    @Ian - Yes, I have your address. I'm still waiting on @johnasumter and @odei's information, but I'm not too concerned about it until I actually recieve the goods. This will take at least two weeks or so, so it's not a big deal.
  • It seems UPS attempted delivery yesterday, but nobody was home to accept it. They are redelivering it today. I am required to pay a £25.93 customs charge on delivery, which I will factor into the cost of the magnets as a whole so that your prices remain as low as possible.

    Once I have the package in my possession I will provide a picture of the delivery notice showing the customs charge and maybe some pictures of the magnets too.
  • great news! cant wait to get my hands on it :)
  • edited March 2011
    I've recieved them. These things are absolutely tiny. The bag with the magnets in weighs about 20g, so your parcels shouldn't cost too much. Later on today at some point I'll post pictures of all the forms and such that I've recieved so that you can be sure your prices are correct, but just to give you an idea:

    Cost for 300 magnets was $240.67. This is £149.086 according to Google. Including customs charges of £25.93, this works out to a total of £175.016. For the sake of simple calculations, I'll call this £175.

    Converting to USD using Google, this means the cost of 300 magnets was approximately $282.50, which works out to 95 cents per magnet. You can use this to work out your individual costs minus postage.

    When it comes to postage costs I realise different people have different priorities. I invite you to visit http://sg.royalmail.com/portal/rm/PriceFinder, select your delivery destination and enter a weight (I would guess at no more than 100g for the final weight of an individual parcel, but it may be less than this or slightly more). Please carefully read what each delivery option provides and let me know which service you would like.

    I would strongly advise the use of Airsure Small Packet, which provides tracking all the way to the point of delivery. Signatures are not required on delivery, but since both parties will have access to the tracking facilities, that will probably be sufficient. For packages being sent to the USA the cost of this service is £6.72 (approx. $12) weighing up to 100g - so this should keep everyone's postage costs uniform and help reduce confusion.

    For those of you in other countries, your prices will vary - please check them! Feel free to get in touch if you are confused about which service to choose.

    All in all, this means that buying 10 magnets using Airsure will cost about $21.50 if you're in the USA.

    You may be required to pay customs fees in order to recieve your parcel. There may also be a fee associated with payment by Wire Transfer. These things are out of my control, and it is not my fault if you do not do your research. If you accept magnets from me and I send you the parcel and a tracking number, I expect to be paid. Fair's fair.

    I am doing my best to give everyone fair warning of this in advance so that nobody is caught out.


    @Unqualified, I'm not sure about. You probably won't be charged to pay me since all you'll need is my SORT code and account number. Your postage will also be cheaper since the parcel won't leave the mainland - so if anything it'll work out cheaper for you.

    Also, can someone poke @johnasumter and @odei for their postal addresses? I'm happy to send everyone else's out as soon as is reasonable, but it would be easier to be able to do it in one trip.

    Photo's etc. later :-)

    Thanks guys!
  • BenBen
    edited March 2011
    Ehm, am I seeing this correctly, that (at least to a country like Germany) they are only giving the option of tracking "while in the UK"?
    (meaning, the only option that is in any plausible relation price/what you get)
    Pretty pointless, isn't it?
    (my point being: complete or none at all; tracking isn't THAT important to me)
  • Assuming that the package itself weighs a lot more than the magnets, such that one with ten magnets weighs about as much as one with twenty magnets, I'll be paying about $30.50.  Assuming that a package with twenty magnets weighs twice as much as one with ten magnets, I'll be paying about $43.00.  Pleasure doing business with you :-)
  • edited March 2011
    @Ben: That page is slightly misleading. Rest assured that Airsure gives you complete tracking all the way from the UK to the destination. The reason they ask you to check the pricing is because the structure is different. When sending mail to the US, there is a standard price for items <=100g, wheras in your case, the price changes with every +/-10g. So you can have complete tracking, and your delivery could work out slightly cheaper.

    @Ian: They really weigh almost nothing. You'd be looking at the first case - the majority of the weight is going to be the packaging, even for large numbers of magnets. I will be paying a visit to the post office soon to take a second look at the envelopes and such that are available.
  • When I bought magnets via Amazon they used such envelpes:

    not sure where to buy them cheapest, but that kind worked fine for sending
  • edited March 2011
    @Ben: Yeah, my post office sells those. They're not expensive (somewhere around the region of $1...) I'm trying to decide between a slightly smaller envelope and a bit of bubble wrapping (which might weigh slightly less) or a preconstructed (but possibly larger than required) envelope like the one above. It depends if I can legibly write the shipping address on them and I think they'll survive the journey...
  • Hi again all,

    I've been a little rushed the past day or two and probably will be tommorow (we've had friends staying over, and I've had plenty of cleaning, entertaining and cooking to do) but I managed to pick up envelopes for us all today. I'll be packaging the magnets tommorow hopefully, and shipping them out very soon after that. I'll upload the promised pictures/etc. as soon as I can :)
  • I don't have time to do a full write up now, but:

    http://mrwizrd.imgur.com/magnets

    More info soon :)
  • Just wanted to let everyone know I'm away from home today. Back tomorrow, at which point I'll get packages ready :-)
This discussion has been closed.